Recently, famous portal sites mostly provide Internet map services. Generally, basic map data for such Internet map services have been produced by the portal sites or expert map production agents. Actually, such Internet maps have been produced and served by Google, Yahoo, Microsoft Corporation, and so forth, and in Korea, many companies have also produced Internet maps.
Map data of a specified area provided by such Internet map services may be stored with a unique link given thereto in order to share and distribute the map data between users. This unique link is referred to as a “permalink”. The permalink is a combined word of ‘permanent’ and ‘link’, and means an unchangeable address representing an absolute position (e.g., URL) which can be posted on a blog, a bulletin board, an e-mail, and the like, and can be linked to any case.
Generally, an address of contents may designate a file position fixed in a server, or may be in the form of a virtual address which allows a program to bring data stored in a database and display the data on a display screen. Depending on circumstances, this address of contents may be expressed as an address, which only the corresponding program can recognize in order to prevent an illegal copy, without using an actual address, or may be a simpler address such as a Fancy URL. If the expression form of the address is changed, an access to the corresponding contents may sometimes fail. Also, contents whose blog addresses have been changed or contents which have been stored in archives for a long time may not be accessed any further through links provided based on the initial address of contents. However, since the permalink assigns an unchangeable URL to contents itself, the permalink allows it possible to access the original contents even in any case.
FIG. 1 is a diagram explaining a conventional system for providing a map permalink.
A user terminal 10 requests a URL of map data, i.e., a map permalink, for displaying information on an area selected by the user to a map service system 20. The map service system 20 generates and provides a map URL based on regional information contained in the map data.
As described above, the permalink is a unique URL of the map data, and thus even if the user terminal 10 distributes the map URL to other user terminals 11 and 12, the other user terminals 11 and 12 can use the map data which was displayed on the user terminal 10. Although FIG. 1 shows that the map URL is directly provided to other user terminals 11 and 12, the map URL may also be provided through other paths such as a blog, a bulletin board, and the like
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an information structure of a conventional map permalink.
The conventional map permalink generally includes a server address a1, a map number a2, a coordinate number a3, a storage number a4, and a point identifier a5.
The server address a1 indicates an address of a server of a company that provides a map service. For example, the server address may be “www.local.live.com” of Microsoft Corporation or “www.maps.yahoo.com” of Yahoo.
The map number a2 may include a map number assigned to map data by a map service providing agent. In case of a famous area that can be marked on the map data as a landmark, an identifier can be assigned thereto. The point identifier a5 may be used instead of the map number a2, or may be used together with the map number.
Coordinate information of a reference point of the displayed area may be assigned to the coordinate number a3. The coordinate number a3 may be a coordinate value uniquely assigned by the map service providing agent in consideration of the whole map data, or may be a coordinate value used in a universal coordinate system using a latitude and a longitude.
The storage number a4 is the number capable of identifying or counting the stored permalinks, and may be generated in accordance with design specifications of a permalink providing system.
The map permalink may be generated in the form of URLs that can be universally used online. By way of example, permalinks generated for Battery Park in New York City by using map service systems of Microsoft Corporation, Yahoo, and Google, respectively, are given as follows. local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=40.705633.about.−74.01745−7&style=h&lvl=19&tilt−90&dir=0&alt=−1000&scene=1484707 maps.yahoo.com#tp=1&tt=battery%20park%20new%20york&mvt=s&tr−f=0&1on −74.017339&lat=40.705734&mag=1 maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=new+york+battery+park&ie=UT−F8&z=19&11=40. 705183,−74.017127−&spn=0.001383,0.002849&t=k&om=1
As can be seen from the above example, although the permalink may selectively include additional information on such as a font or unicode, it can be understood that the permalink is generated by adding a point identifier and a coordinate number respectively distinguished by its own delimiter to the URL corresponding to a server address in a similar manner to the example structure shown in FIG. 2.
However, the conventional permalink as described above is provided in a state that it only includes information on a map itself.
Recently, the map data service has been gradually developed to provide additional services such as a path search service, a shortest path search service, and the like. In addition, the map data service performs a local advertisement by displaying an advertisement of a specific company on map data or displaying a bargain sale notice or events of an advertiser. Further, the map data service provides a service which allows a user to add user-generated data to a map by directly inputting a picture or text on the map by using a graphic tool provided on a web site.
As described above, although “mash-up” map services capable of mixing various information with map data have been provided, a permalink of a mash-up map including various information cannot be provided in accordance with the prior art. That is, it is only possible to store an image of a mash-up map in the form of a file and to transmit the mash-up map image only to limited users.
That is, although the map service has been developed to include various additional service information, advertisements and user-generated information, no algorithm for generating the permalink of the mash-up map has been provided yet in accordance with the prior art.
Due to the above-described problems, the prior art cannot sufficiently take advantage of the permalink capable of indicating the mash-up map data regardless of users or locations.